The present invention relates to a a flexible cam system for actuating mechanisms mounted on a revolving assembly, mainly on a rotary furnace provided with means for the delivery of air-steam-gas mixture under the layer of a bulk-material suspension being heat-treated therein.
The invention is intended to control a rotary furnace during rotation thereof by acting mechanically on various mechanisms, e.g. valves, drives of burners, etc., mounted on the furnace body, so as to provide a specified sequence of their operation determined by the requirements of a given production process.
The present invention can be used in the building-material industry, primarily in roasting cement clinker where the processed mix therefor is blended with chlorides, for the delivery of an air-steam-gas mixture to treat the granular cake suspension during the removal of said chlorides therefrom, and in roasting plain cement clinker for the delivery of an air-steam-gas mixture under the layer of the mix suspension being processed for intensive calcination thereof. In addition, the invention can be used for the delivery of air under the layer of a bulk material cooled in a pipe cooler after roasting in a furnace.
The invention can also be used elsewhere, e.g. in metallurgy, for reducing iron ore in rotary furnances wherein a gas-reducer is delivered under the ore layer, and in the chemical industry for some processes carried out in rotary furnaces.
As is known, the granular cake obtained from a cement mix containing chlorides is freed from these. To do this, the caked granules are suspended in the revolving furnace by the delivery thereinto, under the layer of said granules, of an air-steam-gas mixture. The delivery of the mixture is accomplished by means of burners fitted with suitable valves to control the flow of various gaseous agents used. The same type of burners is employed on rotary furnaces fitted for intensive calcination of cement mixes and for reducing iron ores. The gaseous agents used are delivered to the layer of the mix being treated in a sequence specified for a given process. To effect the required sequence of operations of the burners valves, use is made of various tracer means.
Know flexible cam device has a frame mounted on a carriage which runs on rails layed along a furnace assembly, which frame carries a suitable guide means. The working face of the guide means is oriented at right angles to the furnace body. The carriage with the frame thereon is connected to a drive of a special system whereby the frame is capable of following the axial movement of the furance.
This device, however, suffers from a number of disadvantages, among which are: a guide track which is costly to manufacture, a complex cam system to follow axial movements of the furnace, lack of adjustments on the entrance and exit portions of the guide track, and lack of place for additional guide tracks.
There is also known a cam device for actuating mechanisms mounted on a revolving assembly, having a supporting frame located about the mechanisms and guide tracks mounted on the frame indirectly through servodrives thereof. The frame has an annular shape and is mounted by means of supporting rollers on ring-shaped rails affixed on the body of the assembly.
Although it remedies some disadvantages of the above device, this cam device is complex in construction and creates some substantial extra load on the rotary-furnace body. If the rollers of the frame stick on rails which are layed on the furnace body, the mechanisms actuated by the cam device may be damaged. This device must be mounted with great accuracy, and its running and maintenance are cumbersome.